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Kickstarter turns four – this is what it's been up to

Crowdsourcing product development has come of age, but Kickstarter's journey to now has taken four long years. Here's how it happened

28 April 2013/10:00BST

Kickstarter has been collecting money in its virtual hat since 2009 totalling US$584m on nearly 100,000 projects. Now, as it celebrates its fourth birthday, we take a look at each year’s most impressive technological leaps – and where they are now.

Resonance (2009)

Gaming stepped onto Kickstarter in a big way with this story led point-and-click adventure. In a world first, two characters were actually bought by backers (US$250 and US$500 pledges) so they’d feature in the game. You can snap it up now for £8, or check out the latest projects on xiigames.

TikTok+LunaTik Multi-Touch Watch Kits (2010)

All it took was an Apple product – plus designer Scott Wilson of Nike, Microsoft and Sony experience – for the TikTok project to break every Kickstarter record. Now Lunatik has branched out into impressively strong cases – like the TikTak Extreme – as well as styli and ever-classier iPod watches. It’s even got its own website.

Cosmonaut (2011)

Yes, it’s a stylus for touchscreens. Yes, it doesn’t look world-changing, in spite of its easy-grip chunky design. But its Kickstater technique was seminal – allowing anyone interested to give what they thought it was worth. Grab one now for the traditionally fixed price of US$25 (£16) from studioneat.

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Ouya (2012)

The game changer – literally. An open source console platform that frees up indie gamers to share their creativity. It’s now morphed into an Android-toting home entertainment hub – which might explain why we’re till waiting for it to land. Place your US$99 pre-order here for its June 4th release.

Oculus Rift (2012)

A totally immersive 3D gaming experience has been a long time coming. In our hands-on review we found the experience astounding. So leave your gaming monitor for spreadsheets and start saving the US$300 (£193) for Rift’s June release. Games so far include Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Portal 2, Half-Life 2, Skyrim and more.

3Doodler (2013)

3D printing might be all the rage but 3Doodler has taken it to another level. Draw in 3D using a super-quick drying ABS plastic to make whatever you imagine come to 3D life. Our only problem with it is our broken artistic bone. If it weren’t for that we’d be happy to pay the US$99 (£63) price.